Sarsang Mayor Nashwan Hussni later confirmed the news and called on residents “to avoid the area because it is located next to PKK bases and could be bombarded again.”

It was not clear whether the drone crash was caused by technical problems, being targeted by PKK fighters, or some other reason.

Turkey has routinely shelled or otherwise attacked areas well past its borders and into the Kurdistan Region in past months and years, often killing civilians about whom there were no claims of PKK affiliation.

On Tuesday, Turkish jets targeted an area near the village of Pendro, killing a civilian named Lazim Ali Faqo believed to have been in the area to pick wild mushrooms.

The PKK has been engaged in a decades-long insurgency against Turkey over Kurdish rights and self-rule. Turkey, the United States, and the European Union all designate it as a “terrorist” group.

Clashes between the PKK and Turkish forces have led to the evacuation of hundreds of villages in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, most of them located near the Turkish border.

Villagers have repeatedly called on both sides to take their fight outside populated areas because of the dozens of civilians over the past few years have fallen victim to Turkey’s airstrikes and artillery attacks.